How Do You Know What's A Hit Song When People Aren't Buying Music Anymore?

New Site, Ultimate Chart, Looks Beyond Sales 22/08/10

Buying Choices

How do you know what's a hit song when people aren't buying music anymore?

That's the question that a new site, Ultimate Chart, tries to address.

The goal of the Ultimate Chart is to look at all of the ways in which music is popular, online and off, to create a weekly ranked list of the top songs. To do this, it integrates data from Song and Album Sales, Radio Airplay, Online Audio and Video Plays, and Fans/Friends/Followers.

“This chart is long overdue and represents for the first time an accurate view of where popular music is today," according to Tamara Conniff, Founder/Editor of The Comet and former Billboard Editor-in-Chief. "Music is not just about sales, it’s about interaction—listening, watching, playlisting, evangelizing and socializing.”

What do you think of the idea of using information from sources like YouTube, iTunes and Facebook to rank the hits? Do you think this will be more accurate than traditional measures like airplay and music sales?